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HEALTH

 Malaria: Hundreds turn out for a sports walk in Yaoundé
hundreds march in Yaounde in build-up to the celebration of world malaria day

It is a Saturday, April 20, 2019 and 6 A.M in Yaounde, political capital of the Republic of Cameroon. We are at the esplanade of Ministry of Public Health which on the opposite direction shares boundaries with the National Museum of Cameroon. Taxis ply the roads few meters away from the ministry and people; both young and old, from primary schools, secondary and higher institutions of learning stream in. Also finding their way in are members of the civil society, NGOs, public health family and partners in the growing cross-professional, economic, socio-political and cross-border fight against malaria.

A disc jockey is found connecting cables and setting up his gadgets. Just few minutes after that he starts playing trending songs in Cameroon that appear to send sweet-shocking waves around. One of them goes by the lyrics,”ça a déjà commencé.” Many start dancing to the tune of the songs and soon enter international and national dignitaries.

Without further waste of time, sports directors seized the show and drilled the participants with some warm-up exercises. These gave way to the start of the close to 3 hours walk across the streets of Yaoundé.
participants involved in physical exercises

From the Ministry of Public Health, the caravan went through the popular Mokolo market, through Miniferme, Total Melen, Carrefour EMIA, navigated to Ngoa-Ekele and stops for warm-ups in front of the military stadium. From there, they continued down towards center town and after making turns, marched up back to the ministry where participants were engaged in a few minutes serious sports drills. 


Talking to the press after the sports walk, the Permanent Secretary of the National Malaria Control Program, NMCP, responding to the question why the sports march,  Dr. Dorothy Fosah Achu said, I quote, 
“The Minister of Public Health wants to inform the populations of Cameroon, together with their partners that they are not putting their hands down in the fight against malaria. We are now joining efforts to continue this fight given that malaria remains one of the main/major public health problems. And though we have done some progress, we still need to continue efforts to ensure that we arrive and achieve our objectives” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvfeTMXmOsM

Note be taken the sports walk was in prelude to the celebration of the World Malaria Day which holds every 25Th of April. This year, the activities center on the theme, “Zero malaria starts with me”

Awoh Caleb reporting at MINSANTE in Cameroon     

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